“I wrote it right after I got my ring,” she explains. “You know, when you first get your ring you sort of have an obsessive relationship with it the first couple of months, just staring at it all the time. When I thought of the title ‘Dear Diamond’ I was like that would be cool to sing a song to your ring, but then I, of course, being the person that I am, I turned it into a desperate ‘I’m in a bad spot’ song.”

Lambert says she spent time in Switzerland with Loveless last fall, that the two because friends and she wanted to write a song that Loveless could sing on. When she wrote ‘Dear Diamond,’ she thought, “That’s the one.”

“When Patty sang on it and I heard it for the first time, I started bawling.” Lambert says. “ I couldn’t believe that little tiny goal I set for myself actually came to fruition. It was really cool.”

The songs represent the first performances of the material, gathered from notebooks Williams left behind after his death at age 29 on Jan. 1, 1953. Dylan's Columbia Records imprint Egyptian Records and the Country Music Hall of Fame are issuing the record.

Williams remains an enduring figure in American music and pop culture.

Billy Ray Cyrus and Patty Loveless are teaming up with the Country Music Association and national public health initiative DRIVE4COPD to launch the Tune Up For COPD Songwriting Competition, aimed at raising awareness of COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

“I think it’s wonderful to be a part of something that we really, really need to get the word out about,” says Loveless, who wrote the campaign song last year in honor of her sister Dottie who died of the disease at 48. “What better way to do that than through music?”

Amateur songwriters are asked to create a motivational song aimed at encouraging people to be healthy. The winner will have the chance to play the song live at the CMA Music Festival in June.

“You’ve kinda got to reach in (to write the song),” Loveless says. “If you’ve had loved ones impacted by the disease, maybe you could pull from that and how it has touched you. I’m giving ideas away.”

Loveless, who is judging the contest with Cyrus and others from the COPD organization, says she’s been on the website to view a few of the entries and that she found some of the writing “interesting.”

“There’s a way you could be discovered through this,” she says. “If you win, that’s exposure for you.”

To submit a video of your song or to see the entries (at the time of this posting, there were 24), visit TuneupforCOPD.com. The deadline is April 14. For more information on the disease, visit Drive4COPD.com.

Click to see a gallery of photos from the 53rd annual Grammy Awards (this image of Lady Antebellum: Jae C. Hong/AP Photo).

LOS ANGELES - Nashville pop-country trio Lady Antebellum notched a field-leading five wins, including an all-genre top song and record prizes for multi-format hit “Need You Now,” during Sunday night’s 53rd annual Grammy Awards.

But the story of the evening was Lady Antebellum, the trio of Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood that has risen to dizzying heights less than three years after the release of its 2008 debut album.

Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs won the album of the year award, keeping Lady Antebellum from sweeping the major categories for which they were nominated. That did nothing to dampen the country group’s enthusiasm.

“It feels pretty surreal,” Kelley said after the show. “It feels like we’ve arrived, in a way.”

Scott stood in her high heels and considered her feet.

“The only way I know they’re on the ground is that they they’re really hurting from wearing these shoes.”Continue reading →

In this installment of our regular Seeing Stars photo gallery series: A host of local and locally connected stars -- including Miley Cyrus, Ke$ha and Paramore -- throw down in Spain at the MTV Europe Music Awards; Taylor Swift heads to Canada; Trace Adkins heads to the Middle East to perform for U.S. troops; Toby Keith heads to Kentucky; and lots more.

Click the very colorful Ke$ha above to see what this crop of locally connected famous folks got up to recently.

She came here in 1988 on a lark. She wound up with a publishing deal, a record deal and a career in music. In 2009 she stayed here on a lark, rather then going through with a planned trip to visit friends in Washington state. She wound up using her extra Music City time to collaborate with producer Neilson Hubbard and make an album called Wreck Your Wheels.

“It was the first time I’ve made a record where there wasn’t a label involved,” said Richey.

She lives in London now, but will return to Nashville for a concert on Wednesday, Oct. 27 at Belcourt Theatre. “We could do whatever we wanted to, with no expectations.”

The album — a gentle, melodic, layered pop affair that features Richey’s songwriting collaborations with Mando Saenz, Will Kimbrough and Pat McLaughlin — was eventually licensed by distribution company Thirty Tigers.Continue reading →

The duo of Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent will compete for the night’s top prize with The Grascals, The Del McCoury Band, Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out and Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper. Moore and his group notched six nominations, while Sam Bush, Cleveland & Flamekeeper and The Grascals have five nominations each.

By the late 1980s, while virtuoso guitarist Jorgenson played for hit-making country group The Desert Rose Band, those letters were plentiful, and most often came from adult females inquiring about matters beyond music.

“This one was different,” Jorgenson said, recalling a letter he received more than 20 years ago, postmarked from West Virginia. “It was written in pencil, on notebook paper, talking about, ‘The guitar part you did on this song was cool.’ Plus, I’d never met anyone named ‘Paisley’ before.”

These days, the Paisley fellow — first name, Brad — says hearing the Desert Rose Band changed his life, and we know this because he has become one of country music’s biggest stars. Jorgenson gave him a Desert Rose-used guitar in 2004, at a party where Paisley celebrated selling five million albums filled with guitar licks that are indelibly influenced by Jorgenson’s chiming, twanging, chattering electric style.

On Monday, August 9, nearly two decades after Jorgenson left Desert Rose, he and the rest of the group’s original lineup (Chris Hillman, Herb Pedersen, Jay Dee Maness, Bill Bryson and Steve Duncan) will play a reunion concert at the Belcourt Theatre. On Tuesday the 10th, they’ll play the Grand Ole Opry. Neither show will be a celebration of anything approaching five million albums sold, as the band’s 10 Top 20 country hits from 1987 to 1990 did not spawn such high commerce.

What was spawned, though, was of musical significance. In his time with the California-based, Nashville-marketed Desert Rose Band, Jorgenson brought a guitar sensibility that remains much-imitated in Music City. Lead singer Chris Hillman — who had once been booed at the Grand Ole Opry as a member of shaggy rock-gone-country band The Byrds — helped connect the Nashville mainstream to the hard-charging west coast country-rock styles of The Byrds and another one of his earlier bands, the Flying Burrito Brothers.Continue reading →